“While this measure had been getting better (less unfavorable) in previous months, a clear fall-off in freight caused the index to deteriorate further in January,” says Steve Tam, ACT’s vice president, commercial vehicle sector.
The capacity index is an indicator of supply while the the freight index points to demand.
Fleets responding to ACT’s For-Hire Trucking Index survey noted that the East Coast blizzard in January had a damaging effect on freight volumes.
At 18,200 units in January, North American Class 8 net orders were down 48 percent, the second lowest intake since mid-2012.
Earlier this month, FTR called truck orders “unusually volatile” in recent months, falling sharply in October and November, inching upwards in December and then sliding again in January. FTR’s Jonathan Starks, however, says steady freight demand should help keep truck orders stable throughout 2016, if not push them upwards in the coming months.
